Assetto Corsa Competizione Won't "Support" Modding

[Paul Jeffrey]

Kunos Simulazioni reveal more on the moddability of the upcoming Assetto Corsa Competizione, and it probably won't make for happy reading for some...

With a brand new game engine in the form of Unreal 4 alongside what is a reasonable short development timeframe until Early Access release, Kunos Simulazioni have confirmed that the new title will not follow in the footsteps of the original Assetto Corsa and support modding right from the very beginning, no doubt leaving many content creators disappointed to miss out on the opportunities afforded by the greatly improved graphics engine in ACC.

Although not officially supported, the possibility does remain however for talented community members to work out how to bring content to the game, as has been proven by some hardy souls over in the original Project CARS - it just means that tools and ease of access to modders will not the as it was in the first AC title.

Understandable given what Kunos have to go through to get the game to market later this year, but no doubt a blow to those players who enjoy sampling what the community have to offer. You can check out the full Kunos statement below, taken from a recent FAQ article on the 505Games website...

Assetto Corsa’s structure was designed from the beginning to be moddable. Being developed with UE4, AC Competizione processes data and assets through a completely different structure and file format. Therefore, the game will not be compatible with mod contents created for Assetto Corsa. Also, our team does not have enough experience with UE4 to tackle both the development a brand-new game and the challenges of supporting an open platform in the time frame available for this project.

We are fully aware of the importance of modding and its contribution to the success of Assetto Corsa. It’s a great way for new talents to emerge, for the community to “suggest” new directions and/or simply to make a product richer. It is not a coincidence that some of the best community members are now contributing with us to the evolution of the software.

However, for ACC this element will have to be put in stand-by mode for a series of reasons. The most important one is that we have given ourselves an enormous task of rebuilding, once again our software from (almost) scratch. In a world where pretty much, every product you see on the market in simracing is an evolution of games that have been on the market 10-15 years ago, our approach is to get a big axe and reset things to (almost) zero before starting with a new project. ACC is no exception.

In this case the task is rendered more complex by the fact that we are using, for the first time a third party engine that we did not design ourselves and the truth is, given the amount of time we have available to deliver ACC to the public, we have more than enough on our hands trying to figure out how to use the engine effectively to also think about how to make the platform moddable.

As you can imagine, this has been source of endless discussions in the last year and half as every decision comes with pros and cons, there is going to be pain no matter what your final call will be. It goes without saying that we believe we made the right call even if that means losing the huge benefits of a moddable platform.

We know this might not cover everything, but over time we will continue to answer your most frequently asked questions! Once again, we want to thank our community for the outpour of support you’ve shown us since our announcement last week. We absolutely cannot wait to tell you more about Assetto Corsa Competizione in the near future!

Assetto Corsa Competizione should be available on Steam Early Access Summer 2018.

Check out the Assetto Corsa Competizione here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding this exciting upcoming sim. We intend to host some quality League and Club Racing events as well as hosting some great community created mods (we hope!). Join in the discussion today.

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Do you think modders will find a way to mod ACC? Will the lack of official modding support hurt the game in the long run, or do you think it a sensible approach by Kunos given the new technology in use? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[felippekiss]

I love the AC community, arguing as always for nothing, in case the modders some time come to figure out how to do and introduce content to the same they will make it. Particularly ACC has options that were much needed in the original AC like day / night and weather, other than that it is a game set in a specific series just like Codemasters F1. I don't see the sense of it to support external content and Kunos is not stupid they knows of the importance of the community to the AC and the "success" of the ACC will add much to the future development of a successor to the AC in fact as the we know today all "moddable"

 

[Terry Rock]

In answer to the first question....I believe the modders will find a way around it.
Will it hurt the game to not have it 'moddable'?... I don't think so.
Modding...good as it can be at times....can also represent a double-edged sword.
Look at the original Rfactor and it's predecessor with its 'mismatch / 'content not available' fiasco due to the numerous versions of mods.

 

[bigbawmcgraw]

This post probably won't be popular on this thread but I think it's only fair to see things from a slightly different angle.

From an entirely selfish point of view (I know, how dare I), I'm quite glad that there will be no mod support in ACC. Why? Well for me sim racing is all about online racing, and in AC with the many many mods it's sometimes difficult to find an online race session with more than a handful of clients, unless of course you like GT cars
I know that modding has probably brought and retained a lot of people to AC which might have otherwise dropped it soon after buying, but it also split existing communities by making it almost impossible to organise a racing series which appealed to everyone.
Don't get me wrong, I'm probably one of AC's biggest fanboys and love it for what it is, but I hope that ACC's limited content will bring a better quality of online racing and a more cohesive (if not smaller) online community together, especially with Minolin's native ranking system.
AC will be around for many years and I know I'll still be playing it and its many mods for years too. I'd like to think that ACC won't just be a one off and hopefully Kunos will be churning out a different race series every couple of years or so to keep us interested. Who knows, maybe they will at some point give us an AC2 with updated graphics, night, rain, and all the other things that people moaned about that AC1 doesn't have, and of course modding support, but for now I'm quite excited about ACC, even though GT3 cars aren't my favourite.
In the past I would defend AC against those who complained that there was little simulation value regarding various missing aspects, but this time its needed. They've proved they can do the top notch physics, laser scanned tracks and excellent car models, now they need to deliver a Blancpain race series simulator with all the bells and whistles.

 

[motoliser]

I agree that ACC will be nice but AC2 will have to be released soon after with better features because the ones who don't like GT (I believe are the majority of AC users) wont be happy waiting for too long!!! This ACC will be like taking the candy from children's hands.

 

[BhZ]

I agree that ACC will be nice but AC2 will have to be released soon after with better features because the ones who don't like GT (I believe are the majority of AC users) wont be happy waiting for too long!!! This ACC will be like taking the candy from children's hands.

It's not like AC won't work anymore...AC fans will still have AC.

 

[Neilski]

and in AC with the many many mods it's sometimes difficult to find an online race session with more than a handful of clients

I see your point, and fragmentation is a bad thing if a community isn't so massively busy that every server is teeming. However, any time I click the button to show me servers with DLC I don't have, it barely adds any to the list (and for sure, hardly any busy ones).

 

[bigbawmcgraw]

(and for sure, hardly any busy ones).

Now gather all of the players in these many quiet servers and put them into one or two servers. Then you have a couple of full servers with potentially good quality competition and racing.
But of course in ACC these people might not be around at all if they don't like GT3 cars but they might stick around for the bells and whistles.

 

[delpinsky]

From Eurogamer.it interview to Marco Massarutto:
(I think the translation from Italian is quite good)

Eurogamer: If the license covers all the cars and tracks of the Blancpain GT official championship, does it mean that Bentley and Aston Martin and Jaguar will arrive, in addition to the cars already perfectly simulated in Assetto Corsa? Can we therefore expect laserscan versions of Zolder, Paul Ricard, Misano and Budapest?

Marco Massarutto: AC Competizione is the official Blancpain GT Series game, so it will include all the cars, teams, drivers, livery and circuits of the seasons that we will reproduce, including the models and tracks you mentioned, for which the use of laserscan is a must. Depending on the chosen driver, you may also take part in individual races and Sprint or Endurance championships.

Eurogamer: The Early Access will start next summer on Steam: will it be open to everyone or just a small number of people? What content will it have at the launch?

Marco Massarutto: The Early Access will be open to everyone: we have different ideas on what it should be and how it should evolve to arrive at version 1.0, but these details will be revealed later. One important thing is that we will publish in advance a very clear and complete roadmap that will calendar the different releases, to allow the public to clearly understand what they can expect and when.

Eurogamer: What other features do you expect to implement graphically? Will the Unreal Engine have limitations on the side of the VR support or triple screen?

Marco Massarutto:
The UE4 particle system, efficiently simulates a wide range of effects - from droplets to rain sprays, sparks and more. Trees, vegetation and public will be animated and in 3D and the circuits will include different elements of contour, which will make the race environments much more lively and immersive. It is one of the aspects on which we have changed our approach compared to the past, opting for that kind of "set-up" that the public thinks we can find in a circuit and that derives mainly from what they see on TV during the F1 and MotoGP races. With regard to VR and triple screen, given the excellent support provided by UE4, many features are still being studied. Let us not forget that it is a continuously evolving engine and in Epic they have every interest in maintaining a high level of software/hardware compatibility.

Eurogamer: Obviously, speculation has already begun on the social networks: some already point to Assetto Corsa Competizione as a simple spin-off of Assetto Corsa with Blancpain GT cars. What can we expect in terms of single-player modes that can differentiate it from the original?

Marco Massarutto:
If "spin-off" means to take Assetto Corsa, insert the contents of the Blancpain GT Series, make some makeup and package everything, the speculations are quite far from reality. It is not like that we are developing AC Competizione, which shares with its predecessor our know-how and data acquired in years of study, testing and surveying, but was created starting from a blank sheet. For example, the circuits that the two titles share have been thoroughly restyled and upgraded to represent the most recent and photorealistic version of the real counterparts, not to mention all the new boundary elements.

The interface, among other things, is totally different not only from the PC version but also from the console version of "AC1", and is designed to allow the player to take full advantage of the potential and functionality of the game, no longer representing a "content browser", but a system that allows you to live the Blancpain GT Series in its wholeness, manage your own pilot profile as a true virtual alter ego, and is designed to allow even rookies a progression of the experience effective and satisfying. The same applies to other features, both single and multiplayer.

Eurogamer: The implementation of rain poses new challenges in terms of aesthetics and pure physics. How much did the rain mess up the cards on the table and how did you face this new feature from a technical point of view?

Marco Massarutto:
There are aspects that we are still studying so that rain does not represent a trivialised gimmick due to excessive simplification. The aim is to ensure that driving in the wet does not become more difficult than it really is, also because wet racing tyres guarantee a remarkable grip, compared to the road "sisters". Judging the current results, I have to admit that the wet driving we are developing is much more fun and less frustrating than I would have thought. Not to mention the spectacularity and unpredictability that adds to the races: players will be required an approach able to adapt to the changing circumstances, so a new set of skills compared to the set of skills of Assetto Corsa, in which the grip of the track could only increase with the progress of the session. We will give you more details at the appropriate time.

 

[Epistolarius]

Also from that interview (machine-translated, so hope it's correct):
"Eurogamer: Two fundamental aspects for the success of Assetto Corsa were the good support of the community on the front of dedicated servers and the possibility of introducing contents with modified tracks, customized liveries and even cars. Assetto Corsa Competition will follow the same lines will be characterized by a more closed ecosystem?

Marco Massarutto: We are absolutely aware that the support in this sense was an important element for the success of Assetto Corsa. It's a great way to bring out new talent, to "suggest" new directions to the development team or simply to make a product richer. It is no coincidence that some of the most talented community guys in this sense are now contributing to the evolution of the software with us.

The Assetto Corsa Competizione ecosystem is not "closed", it is totally different, in terms of structure, file format and how the data are managed by the UE4. First we are not simply "updating" our software with new content but we are creating a new title from scratch using a new engine, certainly more powerful in terms of performance but that we know less than the Assetto Corsa engine we had created in-house. With the development team totally focused on the features and contents of the game - working on a new engine - and considering the time window we set for release, we have not yet been able to take into account the details of the development of a modding platform equivalent to that of Assetto Corsa."

So yeah, from everything they've told us so far, it's a 'never say never, but no promises' situation and they won't stop people from attempting to mod it anyway, which is the smartest way to approach it IMHO.

 

[Isaac Chavira]

I actually cannot wait for this SIM. It has been a long time since there was a specific targeted series for a SIM racer game. Yes, I know we have F1 but do we have a dedicated Official Indy SIM or a Le Mans one for that matter.

My hope and dream is that they have an IMSA Weathertech expansion pack as well. It's frustrating at times that RD wont race with custom skins due to lag or what not even if they are 2K. But hey I cannot complain, it is not my server. I maybe pay like .01% of the bill with my meager yearly contribution.

Speaking of Le Mans, the last one I played was on the Sega Dreamcast 'Le Mans 24 Hours '. I think that was in 2001. I really miss my Panoz Esperante GT2 car.

But anyway my hopes for future ACC withinin 18-24mos content are:

• IMSA Weathertech series (all classes)
• Le Mans (all classes)
• Super GT (all classes) - not holding my breath though
• 488 Challenge
• Super Trofeo
• 911 Carrera Cup (Euro & USA)

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

RD wont race with custom skins due to lag or what not even if they are 2K.

LOL
RD needs to get some better staff, that's funny stuff if true. Oh well, hopefully ACC will include all the real world liveries.

 

[Isaac Chavira]

LOL
RD needs to get some better staff, that's funny stuff if true. Oh well, hopefully ACC will include all the real world liveries.

I think they are just trying to keep all the penis and vagina liveries out of the sim. And especially the racist stuff too like the Hakenkreuz.

 

[Neilski]

Now gather all of the players in these many quiet servers and put them into one or two servers. Then you have a couple of full servers with potentially good quality competition and racing.

Yes, absolutely, but that's an argument against having lots of combinations (cars & tracks) of any kind - not an argument against having mods. My point was that mods appear to contribute a very small amount to the overall online activity.

 

[wombat999]

@wombat999 Firstly, I am glad you said "Some" and "Facebook" as IMHO no Quality mods would appear on there.

Secondly - Outside Interference, that's a little harsh, considering your first statement. I would say that us, people that do it for free and share on the most reputable site, HERE would not consider we are interfering, we are "enhancing" or adding diversity?

Shaun

Certainly no offense intended to the eclectic group of reputable contributors here at RD.
Technically speaking ACC is being promoted as 'The Blankpain GT Series' and as such I'd expect it not to require mods, unless Kunos (highly unlikely I hasten to add!) make a pigs ear of the project.
Cut me some slack Shaun, it was posted in the wee small hours ...........

 

[Neils on Wheels]

With regard to VR and triple screen, given the excellent support provided by UE4, many features are still being studied. Let us not forget that it is a continuously evolving engine and in Epic they have every interest in maintaining a high level of software/hardware compatibility.

I really even more hyped after reading that latest interview simply because it seems like it's going to be so complete & really a huge step forward for kunos.
Only a tad worried about VR support, i guess i would take from that statement they are working on adding it?

 

[Nick Hill]

I say this fully realizing it's going to make me no friends, but keep in mind it's just my opinion: I think the importance of mods in the current sim racing landscape is wildly overrated. In the rFactor days, mods practically *were* the sim racing landscape, but I just sense we've hit a point where, with the sophistication level of current gen sims, we're just not likely to see as many quality mods being cranked out as we did ~10 yrs ago.

 

[LilSki]

I say this fully realizing it's going to make me no friends, but keep in mind it's just my opinion: I think the importance of mods in the current sim racing landscape is wildly overrated. In the rFactor days, mods practically *were* the sim racing landscape, but I just sense we've hit a point where, with the sophistication level of current gen sims, we're just not likely to see as many quality mods being cranked out as we did ~10 yrs ago.

That is because there is only a handful of people scratch building accurate quality tracks. Most are conversions of those same rf1 tracks or come out of RTB and we all know what they look like. Now the reason for that most likely is indeed the effort and talent required to build a top class tracks is much higher than it was years ago.

However as far as leagues go mods are almost a requirement. Not saying everything should revolve around leagues but the league I run in uses a large amount of mod content to keep things fresh and change things up a bit.

 

[Rany]

ACC Early Access 23th Sept 2018..

 

[Patrik Marek]

as far as "low" modding numbers, ... let's not forget that there are tons of pages to download mods from, so not everyone downloads from race dept

yes, the numbers are maybe not in the milions, .. but from the players that still play to these days, .. well the number of them using ( and staying) for modded content could be quite different , but we will never know

 

[Patrik Marek]

In answer to the first question....I believe the modders will find a way around it.
Will it hurt the game to not have it 'moddable'?... I don't think so.
Modding...good as it can be at times....can also represent a double-edged sword.
Look at the original Rfactor and it's predecessor with its 'mismatch / 'content not available' fiasco due to the numerous versions of mods.

steam workshop would so easily solve mismatch issues , ...just saying